Seal Beach residents oppose freeway widening

SEAL BEACH - Improvements are in the works for the congested San Diego (405) Freeway between Costa Mesa and Seal Beach.

Nearby residents fear, however, that the expansion options offered by the Orange County Transportation Authority will do more harm than good.

The project would stop at the border of Los Angeles and Orange counties - with traffic on the expanded, improved freeway then squeezing into fewer lanes on the 405 and San Gabriel (605) freeways.

That's one of the key complaints of Seal Beach residents who have grown accustomed to heavy traffic.

"You're going to have a terrible bottleneck," said Seal Beach Mayor Michael P. Levitt. "It's going to be bad."

Former Councilwoman Patty Campbell agreed, saying the freeway farther north of the construction will be a "parking lot."

That concern, along with others raised, is spelled out in comments and criticisms made about the plans and about the draft environmental impact review being circulated until July 17, according to OCTA spokesman Joel Zlotnik.

"We have heard the concerns," Zlotnik said. "We're looking at any way to mitigate the impacts."

The 405 was built in the 1960s and is the most traveled urban highway in the nation, with about 374,000 vehicles per day, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

OCTA planners predict traffic between Seal Beach and Costa Mesa will jump as much as 40 percent by 2040. If the 405 isn't expanded, that section of the freeway would max out at about 6,000 vehicles per hour.

The draft EIR examines three alternatives for the expansion:

The first adds one lane to the 405 in each direction, from Euclid Street to the 605. This option would increase traffic flow to handle up to 7,200 vehicles per hour.

The second proposal adds two lanes in each direction, from Euclid to the 605, plus one more northbound lane from Brookhurst Street to the Garden Grove (22) Freeway. This option would increase traffic flow to 8,400 vehicles per hour.

The third proposal adds one lane, from Euclid to the 605, with one tolled express lane linked to an existing car-pool lane. This would include a possible discount or fee waiver for vehicles with three or more passengers, planners say. Traffic flow would increase to as many as 9,500 vehicles per hour.

Without an expansion, travel time between the Corona Del Mar (73) Freeway and the 605 will average 133 minutes in 2040, planners say. The first alternative would cut that to below an hour, while the other two options would cut travel time along the route to less than half an hour.

Seal Beach residents, especially those in the College Park East area, have been united in their opposition to the OCTA plans, according to Councilman Gary Miller and Campbell.

Miller and Campbell said there are concerns about whether the expansion will encroach on residential streets as a new soundwall is erected.

"We don't want the soundwall moved into College Park East," Miller said.

Campbell is also opposed to the toll road, calling it a new tax burden on drivers.

"The residents are very, very upset," he said. "This is another way to pick our pockets."

Campbell, who predicted a negative impact on property values from the widening, called the draft EIR a "sham," saying it doesn't address the issues facing College Park East.

OCTA planners said no homes would be taken or bought through eminent domain, and full business purchases will be minimized to four or less.

New sound walls will reduce traffic noise levels, OCTA planners said.

But the College Park East area already has a sound wall, and the new wall will eliminate parking, according to Campbell.

The OCTA improvement project could cost $1.3 billion, $1.4 billion or $1.7 billion, respectively, for each of the alternative plans.

Funds from Measure M2, a one-half cent sales tax for transportation improvements that Orange County residents voted to renew in 2006, originally provided about $973 million for the project. However, the lingering recession reduced the predicted resources by about 36 percent, to about $600 million.